GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY WEDDING SPECIAL

And They Said It Wouldn't Last

November 2007

Written by Jud Winnick

Pencils by Amanda Conner

Inks by Amanda Conner

Cover by Amanda Conner

Synopsis

On the day of the wedding for Oliver Queen (aka Green Arrow) and Dinah Lance (aka Black Canary), Deathstroke and Dr. Sivana decide to invade the ceremony for a chance to wipe out all of the heroes.  However, the heroes are able to beat them back and the wedding goes on as planned.  That night, Dinah and Ollie are prepared to celebrate when Ollie goes into a trance and attacks Dinah with a knife, intent on killing her.  Dinah defends herself, grabbing an arrow, and stabbing Ollie through the neck, killing him.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

I’ll get to the ending in just a little bit.  It is the one thing that everyone who reads this issue will only want to talk about.  And that is a shame because Winick and Connor nailed this wedding special out of the proverbial ballpark.  Yes, there really is no wedding ceremony (no one says I do and we don’t hear Connor pronounce them man and wife) but that’s a minor nitpick.  The rest of the issue is pure gold with great humor from both creators as Winick’s words are evenly matched by great visuals from Connor.  She draws the characters “acting,” showing ranges of emotion that fit well into all of the scenes, whether they are humorous, sexy, or tragedy.  I love the two-page spread of the wedding with Guy Gardner sneaking a peek at Starfire, Beast Boy trying to look at Power Girl, Buddy and Ellen Baker and Big Barda and Mister Miracle getting all mushy, and Cyborg annoyed at Snapper Carr.  Compare that to the two page spread of the action during the ceremony.  Beautiful, brilliant stuff.

But the issue really comes down to the ending.  There are problems with it.  First, the sudden shift from light-hearted comedy to the tragedy is jarring.  It doesn’t fit.  Ultimately, the ending to this issue feels like an editorial decision rather than a result of the natural flow of the character’s history.  I suppose Winick was hoping to surprise people with an ending that comes out of left field and to that end it works, but it is such an about face to the rest of the issue that it will leave a sour taste to what should have been a fun, memorable moment in DCU history.  Yes, this issue will be memorable, but killing a major character at a major event does not make a great story.  In fact, the issue would’ve been better served if it ended with the ceremony and a final page of Ollie and Dinah kissing as husband and wife.  It would’ve been the right way to end.  Ollie’s death is not it.  If you want to kill him, fine.  Do it somewhere else.  Perhaps the honeymoon special. 

Second, the solution doesn’t ring true.  Perhaps if Dinah weren’t a martial arts expert or perhaps if Dinah had not spent years in similar fights or perhaps if Dinah didn’t have a special Canary Cry, then it might’ve worked.  I can see how someone, desperate to get free of being attacked by someone they love, could accidentally kill them.  But this is Dinah.  Not only does she have the experience to not do what she did, but she is a better hand-to-hand fighter than Ollie and therefore should’ve been able to turn the tide and subdue him.  Or use her cry to knock him back or unconscious.  Even if we take Winick’s position that the arrow was a desperate attempt to protect herself or to fight back, I still have a hard time believing that she would aim for the neck.  Heroes in the DCU don’t kill and thus she would not have aimed her blow in what would have to be a killing stroke.  One could argue that she is stunned her lover (and now husband) would do such a thing, but given her role as a vigilante and someone constantly fighting for her life, I would still think she would have her wits about her or at least get her bearings after a moment. 

Third, why would DC decide to kill a character for the second time?  Ollie had just returned from death only five years ago (in a great story written by film director Kevin Smith).  My guess is that there will need to be some kind of cop-out change to return Ollie to the DCU, such as “it wasn’t him” (it was a skrull! -- sorry, couldn’t resist) or some other lame-ass reason.  Actually, the reason may very well have to do with multiverse.  Perhaps the Green Arrow since the One Year Later Leap is actually the Green Arrow from Earth 3 or something like that.  I guess we’ll see within the next year or so.